The Reverend

Avery Brewing Co.
Boulder, CO

Available: AK, AZ, AK, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IA, KS, KY, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NM, NY, NC, NE OH, OK, OR, PA, TN, TX, VA, WA, WS

The Reverend, a Belgian-style quadrupel, was created to honor an Episcopal reverend, the grandfather of an Avery employee. The beer can be cellared for four years.

ABV: 10
ABW: 8
Color: tawny
Bitterness: 10
Original gravity: 1093

Deep honey-orange marmalade color. Other quads look darker, but this beer is definitely in the heavyweight category. It's thick and malty, laced with honey, fig and rhum agricole. Lush fruit (sultana, black cherry, red raspberry, plum) and warming alcohol round out the palate, along with background spice. Balanced and quaffable for such a big beer. What I look for in this style of beer. That's good because no one wants an irreverent reverend.
- John Hansell

There's something alluring about a beer that boasts its alcoholic strength plainly and elegantly, which is exactly what The Reverend does. From the first cherry and burnt orange peel soaked sniff to the last warming drop sliding leisurely down your throat, there's no doubting that this is an unapologetically strong ale. Along the way, there's also a candy sugar sweetness, notes of drunken red fruit, some spiciness, especially cinnamon and vanilla bean, and little subtlety. But really, this one is all about the booze...in a good way.
- Stephen Beaumont

John Hansell
John Hansell is an equal-opportunity drinker. He writes about beer, wine and spirits. He is the creator, publisher & editor of Malt Advocate, a magazine for the whisky enthusiast.

Stephen Beaumont
Stephen Beaumont boarded his first plane at the age of 15 and hasn't looked back since, obsessing about travel to the point that he gets nervous if he doesn't have a ticket or two stacked on the corner of his desk. When he's not running around in search of new taste experiences, he makes his home in Toronto, where a new cultural experience is only as far away as the next neighborhood.

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